NEWSLETTER - OCTOBER 2024

On Thursday 19th September Andriza Liebenberg spoke about "Tunneling on the Western Front in WWI".

Many of our members will know of the enormous explosions, especially those near Messines Ridge on the Western Front, which were part of the actions during WWI. Andriza told of offers made early in the conflict to use a technique called clay kicking which was widely used to construct mine and sewer tunnels in the south of England. The British Army was not interested - until it was literally shaken by the German use of tunnels under their trenches and positions. Since much of the western front was underlain by the same clay material which was encountered in the mines in Cornwall, permission to engage kickers and their fellow miners was granted and Allied underground operations began.

Our speaker told of some of the listening attempts, both with and without sophisticated equipment, which both sides undertook to try and locate the enemy's tunneling and counter-mining noises in order to breach the tunnels before they were used.

Extremely large quantities (hundreds of tonnes) of ammonal (packed in special rubber wrapping) and/or gun-cotton were used, each of the sites causing anxiety to nearby (or above!) troops waiting for detonation day... in one case the explosives were placed a year before their detonation. Even if the explosions missed specific troop concentrations, the effects on morale were very debilitating.

Andriza described many of the tunnel layouts and showed slides of the craters when these were the results on the surface.

As with many administrative records, the locations of the placed explosives was not always remembered. In 1955 lightning struck an electricity pylon which had been erected unbeknown atop one of these 'mines". Fortunately the only victim seems to have been a cow.

Andriza's lecture has been added to the Video Library.

Monday 14th October 2024 at 19h30 and then at 20h15:
Speaker:   Helmut Heitman
Subject:   German WWII Weather Stations.

Thursday 24th October 2024 at 19h30 and then 20h15
Speaker:   Dr Vicky Heunis
Subject:   Springfontein Concentration Camps AB War.

The next RPC (Request the Pleasure of your Company) Zoominar will be held on Monday 28th October 2024 at 19h30 and then 20h15. Speakers and topics will be confirmed by invitations.

DDH - George Oliver - Lorentz vs Enigma: the German Lorentz cipher machine was more complex but less portable than the Enigma machine.

The main talk will be by Phil Everitt and will cover the November 1941 Battle of Sidi Rezegh in which his uncle was involved.

The starting time is 1.30 for 2.00pm. The venue remains the St Cyprians Church Hall off Umbilo Rd, with secure parking and liquid refreshments available for cash.
Entry is free and open to all; but a donation of R10 for the raffle and R10 for the car guard are requested from all attendees.

Let scribe@samilitaryhistory.org know in order to be sent an invitation to the next ZOOMinar.

For those members still anxious about Zoom lectures, please give them a try! Go onto the internet and open your web browser at www.zoom.us . If using a cellphone visit the app store. Once you have the app on your device - computer or cellphone - choose to join a meeting. Either use the link which is provided in the invitation or type in the meeting code and then the password,also from the invitation, as requested. There are usually two Zoom sessions per evening.

You do NOT need to have a camera - unless you are the speaker or a chairman - although it is always interesting to match faces to voices. As in the auditorium, you do not HAVE to ask the speaker any questions, but there are ways in which you can draw the chair's attention so you can do so.

Commemorating the Anglo-Boer War of 1899 to 1902. From a Heritage Perspective: Past, Present and Future. - André Wessels

Long term conservation of Rock Art in the Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site. - Celeste Rossouw

Our Vanishing Vernaculars, a warning from Africa. - Franco Frescura

The Political, Economic & Agrarian Context of the Battle of Naauwpoort Nek. -George van der Merwe

Free State Churches. - Philippe Menache

Sophiatown: A City Interrupted - Tshepo Mnyaka

Ruling from the Grave - Kathy Munro

Micro- & Macrocosm Local heritage as part of the wider World - Gerald Buisman

The Heritage of Kgubetswana - Gideon Ellis

Vestiges of the Batlokwa in Nguthu, KwaZulu-Natal - Nadine Franzsen

Reviving Litema: Preserving an Indigenous Mural Art form in South Africa - Minette Cilliers

Snapshots into the History of Golf in the Eastern Free State - Wouter De Wet

The Brenthurst Library - Emma Prior

Toppieshoek Project: Combining Astronomy with ancient African Archaeology. - Vincent Carruthers

Voices of the Mountains: Walking with Dinosaurs and Stories that we read in Rocks. - Gideon Groenewald

The Fouriesburg Dutch Reformed Church building, congregation and town development. - Kobus du Preez

Queries to André Botha - ajbotha1953@gmail.com